Sunday, August 30, 2015

Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Fourteenth Sunday
after Pentecost (B—Proper 17)

August 30, 2015

Text: Mark 7:14-23

It’s
so contrary to our instinct. We’re
always guarding against things from the outside entering in and making us sick
or unclean. We worry about germs. We worry about touching things that are
gross. We worry about what we inhale and
what we ingest. We carry around hand
sanitizer to kill off anything we touch.
We wash with antibacterial soap.
We watch what we eat. We are
forever on a diet. And almost daily in
the news headlines we read about how this or that common food or drink or
ingredient is going to kill us. Now, not
all of this is bad. It’s true that germs
make us sick. It’s true that we should
take care of our bodies and observe proper hygiene habits. And it’s true that too much of some
ingredients in processed food can do damage to our bodies, although I’m not
sure we need all the sensationalism from the alarmist media. But this is basically who we are. We’re always worried about what comes into
us. Maybe for different reasons than the
Pharisees, but we’re worried just the same.
And so it comes as a shocker when Jesus says: “There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile
him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him” (Mark
7:15; ESV).

This
is the fundamental problem of fallen human nature. We’re always worried about defilement from
the outside in, when the real problem is inside out. “For
from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality,
theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy,
slander, pride, foolishness. All these
evil things come from within, and they defile a person” (vv. 21-23). This is what happened in the Garden, in the
fall of man. Suddenly Adam and Eve went
from totally focused on God and His good and gracious will for them, to totally
focused on self and the desires of the flesh.
So they died. That is the way of
death. The fall of mankind isn’t just
about sinful outward actions, what we call “actual sins,” bad things we do and
good things we fail to do. No, it goes
much deeper than that. In fact, it goes
right to the heart of man. We don’t just
say our actions are fallen. We talk
about fallen human nature, what we call “original sin.” And it effects every aspect of us. We are rotten to the core, corrupt in our
very essence. We are born looking away
from God, our only source of life and salvation, and looking instead upon
ourselves. Incurvatus in se, is the Latin theological phrase. “Curved in on the self.” We are navel gazers, self-involved and self-obsessed,
narcissists, and so in our own self-interest, we cut ourselves off from God and
off from our neighbor. Repent.

This
is why we have the Ashley Madison scandal that is all over the news. This is the website I referenced last week
that specializes in facilitating extra-marital affairs. Their tag line is, “Life is short. Have an affair.” Lord, have mercy. I’ll be honest, it takes a lot to shock me in
this fallen world, and I’m not surprised so many men and women (mostly men)
fell prey to this temptation (33 million accounts, over 23,000 in Grand Rapids
alone!). Those kind of numbers are a
little too abstract to make it real, though.
What really put it in perspective for me is an article that revealed
there are only three zip codes in the United States without Ashley Madison
accounts: Nikolai, Alaska, population 94; Perryville, Alaska, population 113;
and Polvadera, New Mexico, population 269.
That’s it. That means you and I
undoubtedly know someone with an Ashley Madison account. That means there are accounts right here in
Dorr, in Wayland, in Hopkins, and in all the places you live. And the hackers are releasing names and all
the juicy details. Many Christians have fallen
to this temptation, and they will be exposed.
I’m telling you, if your name is on this list, you’d better come talk to
me right away. It’s time for Confession
and Absolution. That’s the only way
you’re going to get out of this mess.
This is the way the devil works (and make no mistake, there is a demonic
power behind this website). First the
devil helps you justify the sin in your mind so that you feel comfortable, or
at least excited about doing it. Then,
once you’ve committed the sin, he pulls the rug out from under you. He accuses you and tells you God can never
forgive you now. He drives you to
despair and puts you to shame before your neighbor. And you know what can never help you? Your heart.
Your heart is the problem! For
God’s sake, don’t believe the conventional wisdom that you should follow your
heart! Or be true to yourself! Or go with your gut! Or whatever recycled and warmed-over
variation of that advice.

What
is amazing is that even Christians, who should know better, tell you to “give
your heart to Jesus” as if it’s some amazing present He’ll be thrilled
about! Like your heart is some kind of
pure and precious jewel, and you’re somehow enriching Jesus by giving it to
Him. In Bo Giertz’ novel, The Hammer of God, the young pastor,
Fridfeldt, wanting to teach his older, seasoned, superior pastor a thing or two
about true faith, declares, “I just want you to know from the beginning, sir,
that I am a believer” in Jesus… “I mean that I have given him my heart.”… “Do you consider that something to give him?” asks the old man…. You see, “it is one thing to choose Jesus as one’s Lord
and Savior, to give him one’s heart and commit one’s self to him, and that he
now accepts one into his little flock; it is a very different thing to believe
on him as a Redeemer of sinners, of whom one is chief. One does not choose a Redeemer for oneself,
you understand, nor give one’s heart to him.
The heart is a rusty old can on a junk heap. A fine birthday gift, indeed! But a wonderful Lord passes by, and has mercy
on the wretched tin can, sticks his walking cane through it, and rescues it
from the junk pile and takes it home with him.
That is how it is.”[1]

Jesus
is the Lord who has mercy on you and redeems you, body and soul, heart and
mind, right down to your very essence.
Not because you’re so precious, but because He is so good. He does it by taking on your nature, your
essence, though Himself without sin. Yet
He becomes THE Sinner for you. He takes
into Himself all your sin and uncleanness, all that yucky stuff that oozes out
of your heart, and He humbles Himself to the point of death, even death on a
cross. That is penalty for your
sin. That is the destiny of your
heart. Follow your heart if you want,
but understand, it’ll lead you to the pit of hell. Follow Jesus, whose heart for you led Him
through hell on the cross… believe in Him,
Christ crucified and risen for you, and you have eternal life. Jesus takes your heart and washes it clean
and pure in His Blood. Jesus takes you up
into Himself and delivers you spotless before His Father. Jesus forgives all your sins and creates in
you a new heart.

What
is so backwards about all of this from our perspective, is that He does it by
what He puts into you. Salvation must
come from outside of you. Actually, what you take in, if it be full of
Jesus, cleanses you, heals you, restores and enlivens you. We are speaking, of course, about the Word of
God, the Holy Gospel, the preaching that declares you forgiven and free. We are speaking about the Holy Absolution, by
which you return to your Baptism in which the risen Christ washes you of all
sin, drowns your sinful flesh, and raises you to new life in Him. We are speaking of the cleansing and
nourishing Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, which He gives you here at His
altar, for the forgiveness of your sins.
What comes out of you defiles you.
What goes into you from Jesus makes you clean.

Indeed,
the Lord Jesus gives you a new heart.
The old heart must die. The new,
you can only receive from Jesus. You
prayed for this very thing in the Introit.
You’ll pray it again after the sermon: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me”
(Ps. 51:10). Give me a divine heart and
soul transplant. And Jesus says
yes. It is done in your Baptism. It is done as you remain in our Lord’s
life-giving Word and Supper. Everything
is upside down now. What comes out is
defiled, what goes in cleanses.
Confession of sin is what comes out of you. Absolution, forgiveness from Jesus Himself,
is what goes in. Body and Blood of Jesus
is what goes in. The Gospel is what goes
in. What you think, do, and say is all
sin and filth and death. What Jesus
thinks of you, does for you, and says to you is purifying, healing, and
life-giving. Giving your heart to Jesus
doesn’t save you. That Jesus gave His
heart for you, now THAT is what saves you.
It is not about what you do for God, but what God does for you in
Christ. It’s all so contrary to our
instinct. It’s all upside down. But as it turns out, in God’s economy, upside
down is right side up. And you, O
sinner, are a saint. Because of
Jesus. In the Name of the Father, and of
the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

Sunday, August 23, 2015

Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Thirteenth Sunday
after Pentecost (B—Proper 16)

August 23, 2015

Text: Mark 7:1-13

Jesus
is not against washing your hands. In
fact, if your mother tells you to go wash up for dinner, Jesus wants you to
submit to her and do your Fourth Commandment duty of honoring her, serving and
obeying her, loving and cherishing her.
So also, the rest of us appreciate it when you observe proper hygiene
habits, so love for your neighbor demands that you wash. With soap and water, please. It’s one of the unwritten rules of our life
together.

But
the scribes and the Pharisees are not concerned about germs. Their concern runs much deeper. It is a question of how one becomes and
remains pure: Clean before God, sparkling before the neighbor. The scribes and Pharisees were upset that
Jesus’ disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed (Mark
7:2). They were offended at this because
the disciples were blatantly disobeying the traditions of the elders. Note, this handwashing is not a command of
God. It is a tradition of the
elders. It is a commandment of men. The Jews were afraid of becoming ceremonially
unclean. So in addition to observing the
commandments of God recorded by Moses in the Law, they added extra traditions
that went the extra mile. They washed
everything. The word in Greek is
“baptize.” They baptized everything: Hands,
cups, pots, copper vessels, and even their dining couches. Because what if someone ceremonially unclean
had touched those things? What if
(gasp!) a Gentile had touched those things?
What if an unclean person or a Gentile or a sinner had, unbeknownst to
the pious Jew, brushed up against him in the market place? The scribes and the Pharisees were worried
about guilt by association. We must wash
off that filth! Baptize those
hands! Baptize everything! Wash it all away! God will be impressed! God will see how pure you have kept
yourself! You will shine in the eyes of
your neighbors! You will be clean! But it’s hypocrisy. Because as shiny as you are on the outside,
any honest examination of the heart will turn up nothing but sin and death,
evil thoughts, murder, adultery, covetousness, and every form of
wickedness. Jesus rightly says in
another place, “Woe to you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly
appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all
uncleanness” (Matt. 23:27; ESV). The
scribes and Pharisees rely on their works, especially their works over and
above God’s Law, to make them pure and clean.
And it works, on the outside.
People are impressed. These are
“good Christian folk.” But God looks at
the heart. He is not impressed. The heart is unclean. The heart is evil. In preferring the outward righteousness of
the Law, the scribes and Pharisees reject God’s clear Word. And so by what
they do they make void the Word of God.

It’s
easy to sit in judgment on the legalistic scribes and Pharisees. We are always better at seeing the sin of
another than we are at seeing our own.
The truth is, though, we do the same thing. Like the scribes and Pharisees, we build a
façade. We present ourselves as holier
than we actually are. Think about
it. When someone at Church asks you how
you’re doing, you don’t tell him about your struggle with lust or the evil
thoughts you entertain about your co-worker.
Nor do you tell him all the judgements you’ve been making about him ever since he approached you. You tell him you’re doing fine, because
that’s what you want people to think about you.
“That is one person who’s got it all together!” you want us to
think. And you certainly don’t want them
believing you actually mean what you say when you confess that you’re a poor,
miserable sinner. When you get right
down to it, that’s probably why you don’t come to private Confession, because
you don’t want the pastor to know that you have real sin. But you do want everyone to know that you’re
here, Sunday in and Sunday out, repenting sincerely, believing truly, and that
you give to the offering and serve on this or that board… that you vote the
right way and dress the right way and believe all the right things. And incidentally, I’m glad if all of that’s
true. But I don’t for a minute believe
that the hidden chambers of your heart are as clean as your public
persona. I say this in love, because I
know myself, and I know fallen human nature.
More to the point, the Bible tells us what we are. You and I, Pharisees that we are, are
whitewashed tombs, beautiful on the outside, full of death on the inside. Or as Jesus tells us today, all that running
around being “good Christian folk,” doing the things we expect “good Christian
folk” to do, and counting on that as our righteousness, our purity: that doing,
our doing, makes void the Word of
God. Repent.

This
whole Josh Duggar thing is precisely about this. For those of you who don’t know who I’m
talking about, Josh Duggar is the Christian kid from the reality show 19 Kids and Counting who was recently
exposed for having molested his sisters a number of years ago, and more
recently for having an account with a website that specializes in facilitating
adulterous affairs. Needless to say, the
media is all over this. Here is a
Christian who has taken a mighty fall.
Josh’s Christian fans are horrified by the news. But here is the thing they all fail to
consider. Get ready, because this will
be a shocker. Josh Duggar is not the
exception, he’s the rule! And the very
fact that we love to stand in judgement of him shows us for the Pharisees we
are. Maybe your sins are different than
his. Do you think that makes you
clean? The truth is, you don’t want
others knowing what you think, say, and do in secret, either! You’d be horrified if we could all read your
thoughts, because you know how nasty they are.
You can be as squeaky clean as we all thought the Duggars were on the
outside, but that doesn’t cleanse you of your evil heart and your very real
guilt. If you think it does, you make
void the Word of God. And you are still
in your sins.

Thank
God, you are not made clean by what you
do. You are made clean by what Jesus Christ has done and continues to
do for you. The Lord Jesus is not just righteous, He is righteousness itself. He is the Holy
One, come down from the Father, the only-begotten Son of God, conceived by
the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary.
He took upon Himself our flesh.
He went down into the dirty, stinking Jordan River to soak up your sin
and the sin of the whole world. And He
took it to the cross, bearing it in His holy Body, to bathe in the one and only
cleansing agent capable of the job: His Blood, the Blood of God made man, shed
for you, for the forgiveness of all of your sins. And now our risen Lord, Righteousness Incarnate,
gives Himself to you as a gift. He does
it first in your Baptism. He is not
satisfied simply with baptized hands. In
fact, He is not satisfied with full-body immersion, if all the cleansing is is
an outward bath. When Jesus baptizes
you, He cleanses you from the inside out.
He starts with your heart and with your soul. He takes possession of you with His Holy
Spirit. And what begins at the Font
continues in the Word of Preaching and Absolution, and at the Supper of His
Body and Blood. By these means He gives
Himself to you to be your righteousness before the Father. The Father doesn’t look at what you do. What you do is all sin. The Father looks at what Jesus does. And He counts it as your righteousness. You are clean.

And
now you can do things, like take care of your elderly parents, or give special
offerings to Church, and yes, wash your hands before supper, not to impress God
or your neighbor with how clean and pious you are. You can do those things because the Spirit of
God has created in you a clean heart, a new heart, a heart that beats with the
very Blood of the Lord Jesus given to you in His Means of Grace. You aren’t saved or clean or any better
before God by any of those things that you do.
You are saved and clean because of Jesus. Only Jesus.
It’s not about you. It’s about
Jesus Christ for you.

I
pray Josh Duggar knows that his “good Christian, family values” public persona
is not, and has never been, what makes him clean before God. Jesus Christ already made him clean by His
sin-atoning work on the cross. This is
not to minimize the very real damage he has done to people by his sins. But it is to say that he has salvation in
Christ, and all his sins are forgiven.
Yes, even Josh Duggar, the hypocrite and molester and adulterer. Josh Duggar is spotless before God. Because he is covered in Jesus’ Blood. And so are you. Because you are in Christ. Because you are baptized. All your sins, every last deep dark secret of
your heart, all of it is forgiven. You
are righteous. You are clean.

You
can’t get that by washing your hands or your dishes or your furniture. You can’t get that by anything you do.
You have it in Christ, by what He
has done. And it is free gift. You’ve been washed at the Font. You’ve been clothed with Jesus. Now He brings you to His Table, because
you’re clean and dressed for the Supper.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.

Sunday, August 16, 2015

Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

Twelfth Sunday after
Pentecost (B—Proper 15)

August 16, 2015

Text: John 6:51-69

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat
the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood
has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:53-54;
ESV). Go figure, you make a Communion
statement, and everybody leaves!
Everybody, except a few of the faithful.
That’s what happens to Jesus.
Everybody forsakes Him except for the Twelve. “How
can this man give us his flesh to eat… This is a hard saying; who can listen to
it?” (vv. 52, 60), they ask, their heads shaking in unbelief and
disapproval, as they walk away. There
are four words in this saying of our Lord that make it particularly
controversial, four words that have kept the Church arguing for centuries:
Flesh, Blood, eat, drink. You see, what
Jesus is saying here is that Almighty God is a Flesh and Blood Man. He’s saying to the Jews and His disciples,
“You see this guy here present and speaking to you? I AM.
Almighty God, right here, right now, in the Flesh!” And it’s scandalous! But there’s more. “You want to live? You want to have eternal life? You have to eat me. You have to eat my Flesh and drink my Blood. Eat me and drink me and you have eternal
life.” Now, we Lutherans take Jesus’
Words here quite literally. We worship a
Man, Flesh and Blood. We pray to a Man. God died for us. He could die because He is a human
being. God’s Flesh was pierced. God’s Blood was shed. And God is bodily risen from the dead. He’s still a man. He’s still Flesh and Blood. And we eat Him and drink Him. We believe Him when He says “Take, eat; this is my body… Drink of it,
all of you… this is my blood” (Matt. 26:26-27), or as He says it here in
our text, “my flesh is true food, and my
blood is true drink” (John 6:55).
Jesus says it. We believe
it. He is God, after all, so He can do
this miracle for us, and He always keeps His Promises. So that’s good enough for us. We eat His Body there, under the bread. We drink His Blood there, under the
wine. It is what He says it is, and it
does what He says it does, forgiving our sins and imparting eternal life. It should go without saying that our Lord
does not lie. But as we know, not
everyone in the Church finds this doctrine of the Lord’s Supper so easy to
stomach.

Actually,
the early Church didn’t really have a problem with this. They heard it from the Apostles, who heard it
directly from Jesus, and except for a couple guys in the middle ages who
stirred up trouble, it really wasn’t until the Reformation that guys like
Zwingli and Calvin and the non-Lutheran reformers began to question if our Lord
really meant what He said. These are the
fathers of the Reformed churches. Zwingli
denied that our Lord is present at all in the Sacrament. He insisted it is just a symbol. Calvin said our Lord is present spiritually,
and that we partake of Him by faith, but that His Body and Blood are nowhere
near the bread and wine. Luther just
sticks with Scripture. He takes Jesus’
Word for it. “This is my Body.” Okay,
that’s what it is. And so we believe,
teach, and confess. But it’s offensive,
because you’re taking those four words literally: Flesh, Blood, eat, drink.

Maybe
you’re too Lutheran to get what the big deal is about all this. But let’s just think through what is so
offensive about these words for a moment.
First of all, Flesh and Blood.
For the most part, we’re all okay with this idea that God the Son is a
Flesh and Blood Man, theoretically. But we get squeamish when it comes to the
specifics. You see, because Jesus is a Man,
we confess that God was hungry and thirsty.
He got tired. He had to use the
restroom. I’m not so sure we’re right
when we sing, “the little Lord Jesus, no crying He makes.” To be sure, it wasn’t the sinful, selfish,
demanding cry we’re guilty of as little babies, but how else did the very human
Son of God tell Mary and Joseph He was hungry or tired or gassy? That’s how babies communicate. I was reminded just how controversial this
whole thing is yesterday, the Feast of St. Mary, Mother of Our Lord. I was reading through comments on some things
my brother pastors had posted, and I was amazed at how much objection there is,
even among Lutherans, to calling Mary “the Mother of God.” It just makes Jesus too human. But you realize, don’t you, that’s what the
Bible says: “the virgin shall conceive
and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel,” God with us (Is. 7:14). “(Y)ou will conceive in your womb and bear a
son… the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God” (Luke 1:31,
35). “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of
woman” (Gal. 4:4). Thus the early
Church named Mary Theotokos in Greek,
the Mother of God. That bugs
people. It’s too fleshly. It makes God a little too real. He’s not just a nice idea. He’s not a kind spirit far removed who loves
us and wants us to be basically good people and live fulfilling and happy
lives, but basically leaves us alone except when we really need him. That’s the god of the culture, but that’s not
our God. Our God comes down, He comes to
us, in the Flesh. He comes and gets His
hands dirty with our filth. He’s
conceived. He’s born. He grows up in a backwater town, despised
Nazareth, Nowheresville. He suffers and
He dies. To take away your sin. To take away your filth. To free you from death. And He is bodily risen from the dead, and He
will raise you in your very real body, too, on the Last Day. It’s not just that you go to heaven when you
die. True enough, that, but there’s so
much more. The Man, Jesus, God in the Flesh,
will raise your flesh from the grave and you’ll live forever in your body. A risen body, made complete and healed of
every affliction, but your body. On a
very real earth. A risen earth, made
complete and healed of every affliction, but the real earth. That’s pretty hard to take, too, isn’t
it? Christianity is an incarnational religion. That is to say, it’s a flesh and blood
religion. We have a Flesh and Blood God
who redeems us flesh and blood. We’ll
live forever with our Flesh and Blood God in the flesh and blood of our bodies. Does that offend you? Repent.
You’re offended by Jesus. That’s
what He says.

And
then there’s the clincher. This Flesh
and Blood God… He gives you His Flesh and
Blood to eat and to drink. And apart
from that Flesh and Blood, you have no life in you. Now, to be sure, there is more than one way
to feed on Jesus. John 6 isn’t exclusively about the Lord’s
Supper. Otherwise, how could our
children have life when they haven’t been instructed and are not yet receiving
the Sacrament? We feed on Jesus also in
His Word, which is the Word of eternal life, as St. Peter confesses (John 6:68). But that said, John 6 is about the Lord’s Supper.
Of course it is. The original
hearers of this Gospel heard it in the same context in which we are hearing it:
The Divine Service. They (and we) hear
Jesus say: “Whoever feeds on my flesh
and drinks my blood has eternal life,” and then we eat His Body and drink
His Blood at the altar. Of course He is
talking about the Lord’s Supper. But
this is scandalous, to take Jesus at His Word here. You mean you actually chew Jesus’ Body in
your mouth and swallow His Blood? The
very same Body that was nailed to the cross?
The very same Blood that spilled all over the ground on Calvary? Yes, that’s what we mean. Because that’s what Jesus means. He says it.
He means it. He does not lie. And if you have a problem with that, you’re
problem isn’t with me, it’s with Jesus.
Repent. Don’t walk away shaking
your head and muttering, “This is a hard
saying; who can listen to it?” Jesus
asks you this morning, as He asked the Twelve: “Do you want to go away as well” (v. 67)? Would you rather go have Jesus-free bread and
wine, or bread and grape juice, or Doritos and Coke with those who deny His
bodily presence in the Sacrament, who don’t believe the plain meaning of His
Words? May it never be. Those are the thoughts of the flesh, which is
of no avail. The Spirit gives life, and
He has opened your ears and your heart to a mystery too big to comprehend with
your mind. God is a Man, and He gives
you His Flesh and His Blood to eat and to drink for your forgiveness, life, and
salvation. You don’t understand it, but
that is neither here nor there. You
believe it because He says it.

And
you don’t want to go anywhere else.
Because you know that any other way is the way of death. “Do
you want to go away as well?” Jesus asks.
And you answer with St. Peter: “Lord,
to whom shall we go? You have the words
of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the
Holy One of God” (vv. 68-69), God of God, the Son of the Father, begotten
before all worlds, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, the
Man, Christ Jesus. He is here now, Flesh
and Blood, here for you. Eat His
Flesh. Drink His Blood. And you have eternal life. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son
(+), and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.